27 | February | 2014 | Throwing Up Words

#1 Cheryl Van Eck

The other day I read something so overwritten I thought I would vomit. I hate overwriting, also known as “purple” prose. It’s a disease that plagues almost every new writer.

Basically, overwriting is when you allow words to get in the way of your story.

There’s a mistaken assumption that flowery, pretty words make a great writer. Um, no. Anyone can string pretty words together. A great writer is one who is so clear and concise that you forget you’re reading. They paint a picture so vivid that you see the scenes unfolding before you like a movie.

Writing should always sound effortless. This doesn’t mean it is easy … as any teenage girl preparing for a date will tell you, looking effortless takes a considerable amount of, well, effort. You have to go sentence by sentence and word by word to get it just right. But when you do, the results are incredible.

Writing prompt: Write the most purple paragraph you can. That’s right, get it all out of your system in one glorious, masterful, soul-wrenching, heart-rending, sunrise over the pale haze of a Tuscan villa-esque…

Sorry, I fell asleep while writing that. What was I saying?

#2 Brenda Bensch

We writers all know the old saw, “Write what you know.” Furthermore, we “know” how difficult it is to write, to find an agent, land a publisher, publish our own writings with all the work of being the author, editor, book designer, artist, and so much more.

So, what if you wrote a book about writing a book? What if your MC found one of the above (or other) considerations too overwhelming? Which would it be? What would s/he do about it? How would your MC win out in the end? Or would s/he give up? If so, what would that do to his/her psyche?

#3 Ann Dee Ellis–Romance Novel Prompt

What do they have to do together that they weren’t expecting?

What do they realize about each other as the climax of the other plot comes together?

#4 True Love

This is in English. But there are subtitles for another language (sorry, I couldn’t find the one without the subtitles). Worth watching. A true love story.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fPn9QuEGXM